Pretend Play

It's been so amazing to watch that over the last few weeks Ryder's imagination has completely blossomed. Ryder's been pretending almost constantly lately and creating some very involved stories. Many of the story lines include some of his "guys" and he's always discussing things with them, telling them things, asking them things, telling me things that they think or want, etc. In the past few days, these are some of the things that I can remember. Ryder turned his Thomas tent into a rocket ship by putting it on top of a dump truck. He told me that he wanted to build a tree house like the pig in his book to put next to the treehouse playset he was playing with, so he needed a hammer and nails and some wood. Cookie Monster needed a sheet of paper so that he could play stickers. All of the guys had to take their shoes off before they went into the little people house because they were muddy. Ryder cooked dinner for Grandpa and then washed dishes in his kitchen. He told me that Ernie really liked the goodbye song at music class and that Ernie had gotten art stamps at class too. (Ernie has never been to art class--at least not with us!) Little Doggie had to pick his own book for Grandma to read at bedtime. The trucks were waiting to eat some food, so they couldn't go home yet. And the list goes on and on. It's just magical to see, though occasionally it does put a crimp in our style--like when all the guys wanted to come to lunch and each needed their own plate with food on it and their own forks. But in general it's been an amazing time of growth to witness. And even the inconvenient stuff is certainly funny and very creative!